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Food and market halls blossom in Denver metro area

Low cost for eatery owners, range of offerings for customers among attractions

Moo Bar inside Denver Milk Market.

Joseph Rios

The Stanley Marketplace houses locally owned food and beverage options as well as hair salons, clothing stores and other businesses.

The scoop: Avanti Food and Beverage is considered to be Denver’s first food hall. The establishment is home to seven restaurant concepts — American Grind, Bistro Georgette, BorraCho Taco, Brava! Pizzeria Della Strada, QuickFish, Quiero Arepas and The Rotary. At the top of Avanti Food and Beverage is a rooftop bar that gives its guests a front-row view of Denver’s skyline.

The scoop: Back in the day, Denver Central Market’s building was home to H.H. Tammen’s Curio Co., a company that created souvenir mineralogical curiosities. The market’s Curio bar pays homage to the building, and it serves craft cocktails, wine and beer. Denver Central Market also offers the Local Butcher, a full-service butcher shop; Temper Chocolates, a chocolate shop; Tammens, a fish market; the ice cream shop High Point Creamery; Green Seed, a produce shop; the Izzio bakery, which serves breakfast, weekend brunch and lunch; and other food establishments, such as SK Provisons and Vero Italian.

Broadway Market

Where: 950 Broadway

When: Broadway Market is scheduled to open later this month.

The scoop: Broadway Market is set to open up in the location where Tony’s Market, a grocery store, used to be located at. Life On Capitol Hill reported in December that six of 10 food stalls were announced for Broadway Market, including the MondoMini deli, the sushi joint Misaki, chocolate and snack storeMiette et Chocolate, Pizzeria Coperta, Biju’s Little Curry Shop and Mother Tongue, a restaurant that will focus on simplicity. Daniel Asher, who will be the chef at Mother Tongue, told Life On Capitol Hill that Broadway Market’s future location was an ideal place for a new food hall in the Denver area.

“One, I think (food halls) create natural community gathering spots. If a group of four or six people want to go out… the variety of offerings makes food halls a spot to go to,” said Shaker, a founder of Stanley Marketplace, a market hall in Aurora that opened toward the end of 2016.

Along with businesses such as clothing stores, hair salons and fitness amenities, the Stanley Marketplace houses a variety of locally owned food and beverage options inside what used to be a manufacturing building.

“Instead of going to a particular restaurant, you can go to eight of them at once,” Shaker continued. “On the other side, there’s the cost. If you talk to chefs around town, there aren’t that many that are interested in building a ground up restaurant. (Food halls) are much easier, because you don’t have a debt barrier.”

Other food and market halls in the Denver metro area include the Source, a market hall in the RiNo Art District. The Source is home to restaurants Comida Cantina and Acorn, the Proper Pour liquor store, the RiNo Yacht Club cocktail bar, the Crooked Stave brewery taproom, the food store Mondo Market and other businesses. Sitting next door to the Source is the Source Hotel & Marketplace. Inside, it has a hotel, the New Belgium taproom, Safta, modern Israeli restaurant Smok, barbecue restaurant The Woods, a rooftop restaurant and bar, art and retail goods.

“It’s more just responding to the culture here and having a variety of options. People just want something that is more casual and fun without having to spend a bunch of money,” said Kyle Zeppelin. co-president of Zeppelin Development. Zeppelin Development has its fingerprints on the Denver metro area’s food and market hall scene and is the developer of the Source and Zeppelin Station, a food hall with eight food vendors and two cocktail bars.

Zeppelin said the market for food and market halls in suburban communities has a similar demand to the urban area where the Source is located. However, he said, a lot of it depends on population density.

“There is a need, even in some of those outlying areas. The same built-up demand exists,” Zeppelin said.

Julie Rodriguez, the marketing coordinator for the Denver Milk Market, a marketplace with 12 eateries and three bars, said a marketplace similar to the Denver Milk Market would need to be located close to shopping and walkable destinations.

Golden is currently in the midst of having Tributary and Golden Mill, two food halls, constructed. Edgewater will also soon be welcoming the opening of Edgewater Public Market, a food hall and shopping center.

“How many times do you go to a different town space, and there’s more than one restaurant on one block? (Food halls) create more flexibility, and adaptable spaces,” said Shaker. “There’s a lot of market efficiencies if you create the right spot in the right neighborhood. The real opportunities are in the outskirts, and it makes sense from all of the various stakeholders. I don’t think this is a trend going away anytime soon.”

The following are results from state Legislature, county and municipal races, and ballot issues from the Nov. 6 election. Results for county and municipal offices and ballot questions were updated shortly after midnight on Nov. 7. For state Senate and state House, results were updated Nov. 8.